La Llorona is a figure from Mexican folklore. She was a woman who drowned her two children in rage after her husband left her for another woman. When she died, her soul was condemned to search for the souls of her children. Her soul was said to have remained as a mournful ghost, eternally trapped in limbo causing injury or death to the living children who had the misfortune of encountering her.
It was 1973 in Los Angeles. Anna Tate-Garcia was a social worker investigating a case of possible child abuse in the household of Patricia Alvarez. Finding Patricia's two sons locked in a closet, Anna took them into protective custody. However, that same night, the boys were found dead drowned in a river nearby. Patricia blamed Anna for their deaths, and then cursed that Anna's own two kids will now be the next target of the La Llorona.
James Wan (of "The Conjuring" franchise) heads the production team behind this film about La Llorona. Actually, there is an appearance of the priest from the first "Annabelle" film, Fr. Perez (Tony Amendola), as one of Anna's advisers about her spectral problem. Since this film is considered as part of the "Conjuring" universe, the upcoming third "Annabelle" film scheduled to show later this year will be the second film of that franchise for 2019.
After 'A Simple Favor" and "Green Book" last year and as Clint Barton's wife Laura in "Avengers: Endgame," it is great to see Linda Cardellini is getting more roles in prominent films again. She played the troubled lead character Anna here. I first knew of her as Velma in the "Scooby Doo" films (2002, 2004). I'm guessing that the scene in this film where a child was watching a "Scooby Doo" cartoon on TV was a reference to that fun fact.
Anna's children Chris and Samantha were played by Roman Christou and Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen. This whole Garcia family behaved like typical horror film characters who boldly go where they obviously shouldn't. That was why this film was full of anticipated jump scares. The setups were very obvious, but that is not to say they were not good. I particularly liked those two scenes that involved Samantha -- one with the clear umbrella at the pool and that one very tense bathtub scene.
The comic relief in this moody film was provided by Raymond Cruz as the priest-turned-faith healer, Rafael Olvera. He has a grim face and he looked like he was very serious with his spells, but those scenes with the eggs were really laugh-out-loud funny for me. Everyone in those scenes were keeping their faces straight, but I am sure those were fun scenes to shoot, especially for the kid actors. 5/10.
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